'Have played on grassy pitches in England where batting was impossible': Kevin Pietersen reacts on Ahmedabad pitch

At a time when the cricketing world is divided on their assessment of the Ahmedabad pitch in which the India-England third Test match ended inside two days, former England captain Kevin Pietersen said he has played on pitches in England which were ‘impossible’ to bat because of the amount of grass on them.

Pietersen’s comments came after India thrashed England by 10 wickets to end their hopes of winning the four-match series and also qualify for the World Test Championship final.

“England players and fans can talk about the pitch, but I’ve played on pitches in England that have had so much grass on that batting is virtually impossible. You have to play the conditions,” Pietersen wrote in his column for betway.

England were bowled out for 112 and 81 (their lowest against India) as India spinners Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin shared 18 wickets between them.

Pietersen dismissed all the talk around the Ahmedabad pitch as ‘nonsense,’ adding that batting from both India and England was ‘dreadful’.

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“Yes, the surface at Ahmedabad ensured that the ball was always likely to dominate in the third Test. But I’m just not having this nonsense about the pitch being unplayable. I’m not having it. The batting from both teams was absolutely dreadful,” he wrote.

The former attacking batsman, who is all set to lead England in the Road Safety World Series tournament in India, said batsmen should always guard their stumps.

“As a batsman, you guard against the straight deliveries. That should be your No. 1 priority. If it beats you on the outside edge, that’s no problem.

“If you get a really good ball that you just cannot play – like Shane Warne’s famous deliveries to Mike Gatting and Andrew Strauss, and even Moeen Ali to Virat Kohli in this series – then that is what it is.

“It’s the same when facing seamers. You might get beaten on the outside, and you might occasionally nick an unplayable one, but you’ve got to be able to defend your stumps when they try and beat you on the inside. That’s fundamental.

“So it was very disappointing to see 21 wickets fall to straight deliveries from spinners in this match,” Pietersen added.

Pietersen even went on to add that England could well have ended up on the winning side had they batted well.

“England could have won this Test match if they’d batted better on day one, there’s no doubt about it. They had a great chance to be leading this series 2-1.

“It’s been very frustrating to hear so much debate about the pitch when the relatively simple skill of blocking straight balls was so absent,” he concluded.